A YOUNG mum involved in a tug-of-love has been told she can't have any more children after being diagnosed with cervical cancer.

Carly Jones, 23, of Medlar Close, Lache, has been locked in a 12 month legal fight to gain custody of her two young sons since being forced to leave them in Germany to escape an alleged abusive relationship with her ex-fiance.

The cancer diagnosis - rare in women under 25 - came as she won the right to monthly visits to her boys Sol, four, and Reece, one.

Carly, who suffers constant bouts of nausea and has lost two stone in less than three months, said: 'The court agreed to me visiting the boys once a month to build up a relationship and eventually get them home.

'Now I can't travel because of the treatment and the risk of infection.

'Everything's been put on hold when I was so close to getting them back.'

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With dreams of being reunited with her two children shattered by a diagnosis of cancer, young mum Carly Jones tells SELENA O'DONNELL she is determined to beat this latest challenge.

MOST mums are busy preparing party games and wrapping presents in the days before their children's birthday.

Carly Jones, 23, was faced with spending her son Sol's fourth birthday on Wednesday hundreds of miles away in a cancer ward.

'I've got his present and card here and once I am out of hospital I'll send it over,' said Carly, who has been fighting for custody of Sol and one-year-old Reece since leaving her estranged fiance in Germany a year ago.

'They've told me that they are having a little party for him. I should have been there. I've told the boys that mummy is just tired and she will be fine soon.

'I would hate it if he thought I just wasn't visiting him on purpose. I just want to get over this, get my children back and start living a normal life.'

Carly, of Medlar Close, was celebrating after winning the right to start rebuilding a relationship with her boys at a hearing in a German court, when her GP sent her for a smear test in September.

Carly, who had been complaining of irregular bleeding and back ache, said: 'I'd put my symptoms down to stress. I just cried and cried when they told me it was cancer.

Screening for cervical cancer is routinely carried out on women 25 and over. A diagnosis in someone of Carly's age is considered rare.

'The courts had just said I could start to build up a relationship with the boys again and I should have been visiting them every month but now I can't travel. After everything, it's all come to a standstill.'

Instead of working her way through the slow legal process of regaining custody, for now Carly has to be satisfied with daily phone calls to the foster parents and her ex-partner's parents who are looking after the boys in Germany.

Specialists have confirmed the cancer is Stage 2B which reacts best to a combination of radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

Carly, who now weighs just seven stone, said: 'I've been told it's localised and hopefully treatable. And I've always believed that I will get the boys back. But they have said that I won't be able to have any more children.

'It's hard to hear you won't be able to when you are only 23.'

Carly plans to raise money for cancer research by dying her hair pink in February and is appealing for a Chester hairdresser to help.